BOARD OF TRUSTEES Meeting Minutes September17, 2015

Transcription

1 Attendance Present: Rev. Russell Heiland Dave Richardson, 1 st Chair Kathy O Brien, Secretary BOARD OF TRUSTEES Meeting Minutes September17, 2015 Absent: Beth English, 2 nd Chair Anita Hartley, Keeper of the Flame Call to Order Minutes Dave Richardson called the meeting to order at 7:00pm Rev. Russell read from the Daily Word, and led the pray-in. Check-in by each member present. Chip Roth, Treasurer Jackie Fuller, Member at Large Stacey Guenther, Member at Large Jenice Jones-Porter, Executive Director The minutes of the August meeting were reviewed online prior to the meeting, and were unanimously approved and posted to the website. Minister s Report Rev. Russ Chip Roth made a motion that we contribute a $500 tithe to Spirituality Today. Stacey seconded the motion, which passed by unanimous vote. (See the first item in the attached Minister s Report for more information.) Treasurer s Report Chip We are still short of budget for contributions and Love Offerings. August YTD Budget 56, ,000 Actual 51,000 56,000 Dave reported that an analysis of giving patterns, comparing 2014 to 2015, has revealed the amount of small-to-medium contributions has gone down. Larger donations have remained fairly constant. We have not needed to take any funds from the Operating Reserve. We did not get to skip a month s payment in the process of re-financing the mortgage, as some had thought we would. Finance Team Report Chip Finance team will meet on September 21 st to work on the 2016 budget.

2 Dennis Green from the Finance Team suggested considering a family retreat to counter the impression some have that retreats are for old people. Discussion of transparency in the church s tithing led to a decision that each month in both Sunday services the tithes made by the church will be reviewed for the community. A request was received from the Retreat Ministry for a rotating budget, which would support expenses incurred in setting up retreats, to be offset later when fees from attendees are collected. o The intent of the Board is to support this cash flow, to minimize out-of-pocket expenditures followed by reimbursement requests by ministry leaders, for this ministry and others as well. o Stacey reported finding that many ministry leaders are funding their ministries themselves. The Board agreed on the need to fund ministries through love offerings, discouraging this pattern of hidden expenses. KISS Campaign Status Dave A communication has been written to go out to the donors for the KISSmas in July campaign, which was suspended until after year-end and will be re-named. Planning for Annual Membership Meeting (Nov. 1) The agenda for the annual will include: o Review of the year s successes o Presentation of the plan to begin live streaming the Sunday service o Reports from the Strategic Planning Team o Presentation of the budget o Election of new Trustees o Midd Hunt s video review of the year o Gratitude expression, which will become a regular part of Community Dialogue meetings and the Annual Membership meeting. Team Reports Strategic Action Team Beth reporting. o Teams are preparing reports for the Annual Membership meeting. Spiritual Social Action Team Jackie reporting. o Jackie reported on the formation of a new organization to sponsor the D.C. Walk, which is the new name for what used to be the Unity Walk. As Unity of Fairfax has participated and contributed in the past, Jackie introduced the consideration of contributing again this year. A motion was passed to contribute again this year while reconsidering our entire Service program for next year. The amount of the contribution will be $300. Policy Team Kathy reporting. o Kathy presented the digital version of the complete draft of the baseline Policy Manual, with the exception of the Financial Policies, is ready for review. o Kathy demonstrated the organization and navigation of the manual and announced that it would be ed to all Trustees for review and feedback. Feedback was requested by Oct. 3. Pray Out and Close at 9:05.

3 Attachments Minister s Report Upcoming Dates Unity Fall Festival and Silent Auction, Saturday, September 26 Next Board meeting, Thursday, October 15, 7-9pm Board candidates presented to community, Sunday, October 11. Meet the Candidate sessions after each Sunday service, October 18 and 25. Annual Meeting and Election of Trustees, November 1 One evening between the Annual Meeting and the November 19 Board meeting, Board dinner to celebrate addition of new members

4 Tithe matters: Minister s Report * in random order * September 17, 2015 Today is Unity of Fairfax s 59 th birthday! Donna Lee, at her own expense, took a 3-day training in small groups leadership at Unity Temple on the Plaza led by Licensed Unity Teacher Mendhi Audlin. We ve made some changes to how we do small groups as a result and Donna has been truly inspired (and is sharing that inspiration). She requests, and I completely agree, that we send a tithe to Mendhi s non-profit, Spirituality Today. I propose a one-time tithe of $500 to be made next time tithe checks are written. Spirituality Today is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. PO Box 2288, Evergreen, CO Our mission is to Inspire Infinite Connections through Small Group Ministry. We do this by providing leadership development programs, video-based small group curriculum, and administrative infrastructure for participating ministries. With UWM taking over the education component of the Unity work, I propose that we immediately shift some tithe monies to the Education Fund. My proposal is at least $1000/month. This is all the more important as Teresa Accomando has been hired as Education Program Project Manager. In a related note, I m having dinner with Charlotte Shelton, President and CEO of Unity School (dba Unity World Headquarters at Unity Village) and a few others on October 6 at the Tower Club. Unity Walk has requested money. I sent you their request. I went last year, and it was great; however, I will not be going this year and I haven t heard anyone say they ll be attending; then again, I haven t asked. In the very near future, I would like to have Chip or a board member do a brief report out on a Sunday of where we have tithed. A simple chart ppt will suffice to remind folks that the church is a tithing institution, and encourage them to tithe as well. Annual Meeting Item: I would like to have time for a brief dialog about Community News announcements and to alert the church that we will be changing the order of service effective Nov. 29 (1 st Sunday of Advent, beginning of a new liturgical calendar). Livestreaming will begin on/before January 3, Divine Audacity: Small group facilitator training went well on September 15. I think we ll have about 10 groups. Unity Awakening Celebration: Donna Lee and I have discussed it and welcome a fund-raising raffle to support the Capital Fund. The event itself will be a fund-raiser, but we haven t hashed out the details yet. Reston Community Center, Hunter Woods on Friday, November 20, September 2016: That will be our 60 th birthday. Do you want to do a big event? What about Unity Fall Fest? We need to be clear in our thinking so as to not do two big events back to back. The birthday could be any time really in Away dates: I m taking off Tuesday, Sept. 22 (my 25 th anniversary, well, most likely taking it off ), Sunday, October 11 (guest speaker Rev. Richard Bunch, co-minister Unity of Richmond and UWM Board member), Tuesday, October 13 (my 50th), November 4-10 (guest speaker on

5 Nov. 8 Rev. Sandy I ll be in FL getting a final dose of sun for the year and speaking at First Unity). Shalem Program: I have formed a listening group of laity that will have it s first meeting on Friday, September 18. The group will meet monthly through August 2016 to discern how Spirit is moving in their lives and in the corporate life of Unity of Fairfax. Other notes: Capon retreat went very well. Jenice and Taylor made a rental agreement with a Tibetan school group for 2 years for late Sunday afternoon classroom rental. Unity Fall Festival is coming together. WDP had a tiny turn out, but a beautiful program. Labyrinth had small attendance. KUDOS to Stacey Guenther for her ministerial debut on August 30!